Should Atheists Give Up Anything for Lent?

March 31, 2013

I’m thinking about giving up religion for Lent. Well,
to be more precise, I’m giving up hope for religion for Lent – I gave up
religion itself, including Lent and other Christian rituals, ceremonies,
dogmas, prejudices and such of guilt-inducing Catholicism, about 60 years ago –
when I was fifteen. But, after watching the bizarre events associated with the
selection of a new pope, which dominated the news for at least a week, I’m
giving up hope that religion will ever be sensible or do more good than harm.
The very fact that the pope-a-drama got so much attention suggests the world
needs more sarcasm and less reverence. Where religions are concerned,
good-natured mockery and merciless hooting would be a mental health tonic.

Besides hope for religion, what else might I
give up for Lent this year? As a kid doing what everyone else was doing in my
Irish-Catholic culture, I dutifully followed Catholic traditions and practices.
This included denying myself something during the 40 days of Lent. I usually
gave up things I felt I easily could do without. One year, I gave up cigar
smoking; in my final year as a Catholic, I gave up Marilyn Monroe. Inasmuch as
I never smoked cigars and had no chance to get far with Marilyn, Lent was not a
difficult time.

The other day, I read an article that asked,
“What would an atheist Lent look like?” (See Kimberly Winston, “After
giving up religion, atheists try giving up something else for Lent,” Religion
News Service, March 18, 2013.) That seems a bit like asking, What would an
atheist Holy Communion look like? It’s an oxymoronic question.

Atheists would not do Lent or eat Jesus. That’s
why we’re atheists – we don’t do gods, thus no religion, Lent, communion or the
rest of it.

But, let’s go along with the spirit of the
question, so to speak. What might a reason-based person relatively free of
superstitions choose to do without for a period of time in order to advance
some good, personal or global? What might he or do without for 40 days just as
a character-building exercise of sorts, to enhance a capacity for sacrifice or
delayed gratification? Let’s define do without as refraining from
something that is actually valued, not doing without that which is either
undesirable or beyond the realm of reality, as in my youthful Lents concerning
cigars and Marilyn.

The article by Ms. Winston in the RNS featured
atheists switching to vegan meals (a sensible thing to do any time of year),
giving up alcohol, animal products, the Internet or cellphone usage. Some
simply resolved to be nicer, such as telling good friends how important they
are. These, too, seem to be worth doing at any time, though for some alcohol,
Internet and cell phones might be just fine.

The focus of the RNS piece, however, was the
notion, put forward by the author, that there was some kind of schism amongst
atheists about whether to borrow a concept like Lent from believers. This seems
illogical – few atheists give a flying hoot what other atheists do during Lent
or otherwise. Of course, there are lunatic atheists out there who might care
about something like this, which of course is none of their business, but I
doubt if many would care about such a thing, let along got involved in
arguments about it.

I don’t believe there is conflict amongst
atheists over borrowing religious traditions antithetical to nontheism, as the
author suggests. For one thing, there is no “thetical” to be anti about.
Why would someone who finds no evidence for gods care if others who find no
evidence for gods adapt something found in a religion to entertain themselves?

In her piece about atheists involved in disputes
amongst themselves on this absurd issue, the writer or alleged atheists she
interviews offer a variety of interesting assertions, including the following:

* A divide exists in the nontheist community
– between older atheists who see religion as inherently evil and younger
atheists who are more open to interactions with religious belief. I had no idea
there was such an age-based difference among non-believers. Have you read or
heard about such a dichotomy?

* Alain de Botton, author of “Religion for
Atheists,” has suggested that atheists adopt religious rituals to create
community and meaning in the context of their non-god beliefs. Why would
rational people given to reason copy practices from ancient superstitions?
Don’t freethinkers find community and meaning in other ways?

* That “religions have been working on how to
live as good human beings for thousands of years…so it made sense to me that
they have figured out some stuff that those of us trying to live good secular
lives can learn from.” Wow. Like what? How to burn people alive for blasphemy?
How to slaughter, enslave and impoverish those who don’t consent to the right
religion? I wonder what stuff this fellow had in mind.

I have not paid any attention to Catholic
rituals for a very long time, as noted, but maybe I’ll get in the spirit of
those few atheists who see some value in the Lenten tradition. Let’s see, what
shall I give up? Hmmm. I’ve done cigars and Marilyn is no longer around.

I’ve got it. For Lent, I shall refrain from
being too polite to tell others what I think is the truth about the Holy Bible.
I think the truth about this book was captured perfectly by Robert Green
Ingersoll in 1894. Here is part of what he said in one of his numerous eloquent
orations.

There are many
millions of people who believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God —
millions who think that this book is staff and guide, counselor and consoler;
that it fills the present with peace and the future with hope — millions who
believe that it is the fountain of law, Justice and mercy, and that to its wise
and benign teachings the world is indebted for its liberty, wealth and
civilization — millions who imagine that this book is a revelation from the
wisdom and love of God to the brain and heart of man — millions who regard this
book as a torch that conquers the darkness of death, and pours its radiance on
another world — a world without a tear.

They forget
its ignorance and savagery, its hatred of liberty, its religious persecution;
they remember heaven, but they forget the dungeon of eternal pain. They forget
that it imprisons the brain and corrupts the heart. They forget that it is the
enemy of intellectual freedom.

Liberty is my
religion. Liberty of hand and brain — of thought and labor, liberty is a word
hated by kings — loathed by popes. It is a word that shatters thrones and
altars — that leaves the crowned without subjects, and the outstretched hand of
superstition without alms.

Liberty is the
blossom and fruit of justice — the perfume of mercy. Liberty is the seed and
soil, the air and light, the dew and rain of progress, love and joy.